The Heart of Betrayal (The Remnant Chronicles #2)
By Mary E. Pearson
Genre: YA Fantasy
Recommended Ages: 16+
***May contain spoilers for book one***

Held captive in the barbarian kingdom of Venda, Lia and Rafe have little chance of escape. Desperate to save Lia’s life, her erstwhile assassin, Kaden, has told the Vendan Komizar that she has the gift, and the Komizar’s interest in Lia is greater than anyone could have foreseen.

Meanwhile, nothing is straightforward: There’s Rafe, who lied to Lia but has sacrificed his freedom to protect her; Kaden, who meant to assassinate her but has now saved her life; and the Vendans, whom Lia always believed to be savages. Now that she lives among them, however, she realizes that may be far from the truth. Wrestling with her upbringing, her gift, and her sense of self, Lia must make powerful choices that will affect her country… and her own destiny.

The Gist:

After falling in love with book one in this series I was very excited to read book two. Book two was very good. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first book, but I still really enjoyed it. It still had a lot of the same elements I liked from book one: Suspenseful threat of something to happen in the future, gloriously agonizing love triangle.

What I Liked:

I was so relieved that Lia and Rafe weren’t separated that long. And while I am completely Team Rafe, I have to admit I was intrigued by the interactions between Lia and Kaden.

We really get a much better look into the character of Kaden in Heart of Betrayal.  He is a much more intricate character than I originally thought. Being able to be inside his mind was a nice touch to the story. These assassins sure are complex.

The ending made up for a lot of the slow pace shortcomings in the first half of the book. Something happened every second and it was gripping and edge-of-your-seat good. And the very end, oh man, I am right back to anxiously waiting to read book three.

Now that the pretending and pretenses from book one could be tossed aside for the characters, we really see them grow in this book. Character development is really important to me because without it the characters get annoying. And I think that’s something to note here, that I didn’t find any of the main characters annoying.

The romance was front and center in the first book, and while it still had a big presence in book two, the threat of a looming war was woven in with expert precision. It added an extra layer and depth to the story so it didn’t feel quite as cliche and lovey-dovey.

What I Didn’t Like:

It felt slow at parts, too much waiting around for something to happen while different characters talked and tried to manipulate each other. I craved more action in this book. There was some in the first but not a lot. So I thought for sure there would be more in book two when she’s in enemy lands. But the action fell short for me.

Lia’s gift was hinted at in the first book and even more so in the second, yet I didn’t see it in action as much as I would have liked. I didn’t expect to see the full blown power of it, cause you gotta leave something for book 3, but it still felt like too much of a faint whisper.

I kind of forgot Pauline existed in this book. Every now and then a scene was thrown in from her point of view and I was jolted with the memory of her existence. Her scenes seemed out of place.  The story snapped to a halt every time Pauline’s chapters appeared out of nowhere. They did nothing to move the story along in my opinion. And did Lia forget about Pauline? I know she has a lot going on, and she did remember her every now and then, but she didn’t seem too concerned about her.  I think if Lia would have thought of her more or mentioned her more her scenes might have made more sense.

LunasLuckyRating: 4/5 Lunas